Let's make wishes
by smaragdbird
Summary: In front of the airport Arthur and Robert accidentally grab the same bag. Things continue from there. Robert/Arthur slash


Robert still looks at his cell when he reaches for his bag and accidentally brushes the hand of the man next to him because they were reaching for the same bag.

"Sorry," Robert says: "I thought that was mine."

"No problem." The other man answers. Robert recognises him faintly, he was in the seat on the other side of the gangway and Robert remembers admiring his suit before he fell asleep. It's a very fine suit and it compliments its wearer greatly even though it is slightly wrinkled now. The other man obviously fell asleep, too.

"Robert Fischer," Robert offers his hand and a smile. The other man hesitates for a second before he takes his hand and returns the smile:

"Arthur Cobb."

There are a million other things he should be thinking about right now instead of chatting up a stranger in an airport but that smile stirs something inside him.

"Are you here on business?" Robert asks casually. He spots his bag, the right one this time and picks it up.

"No, just visiting my family." Arthur answers. Both of them begin to walk out of the airport.

"You?"

"My father's funeral." Robert replies shortly.

"I'm sorry." Arthur offers and Robert tilts his head gratefully.

Outside his chauffeur is already waiting while Arthur looks around for a taxi. Robert takes a business card from his pocket and writes his cell phone number onto the back.

"Here." He gives the card to Arthur: "Maybe you can call me when you find the time."

Arthur looks surprised for a moment but he takes the card with a small smile and puts it in his breast pocket.

"I will." He says and Robert hopes that he does.

"Have a nice day." He says to Arthur before climbing into the car and Arthur says:

"You, too." And smiles.

/

Robert sits at his desk and massages his temples. He hates to fight with Uncle Pete but his father is dead and his uncle has to accept that Robert is his own man now and capable of making his own decisions. He knew that Uncle Pete wouldn't take the news that he plans to dissolve Fisher Corp lightly but that doesn't he has to like them fighting about it.

His cell rings.

It's not his business cell but the one he has for private numbers. Lately he has only used it to talk with Uncle Pete. His father's fast progressing illness hasn't really left him any time for a private life.

"Robert Fisher?"

"Hello, here's Arthur Cobb. We met at the airport a few days ago."

"We had the same bag." Robert finds himself smiling at the memory. He had nearly forgotten about the encounter until now.

"I wondered if you were busy tonight." Arthur asks and Robert, pointedly closing his calendar, says: "I'm free if you are."

Arthur names a restaurant that is a bit more casual where Robert usually spends his rare nights off so he forgoes the tie and simply shows up in a blazer and a shirt. Arthur isn't dressed any less casually: he wears a waistcoat but no tie and the sleeves of his shirt are rolled up.

He smiles when he sees Robert and Robert smiles back.

The evening flies by. Arthur easily keeps the conversation flowing and halfway through desert Robert realises that this is the first night in months where he hasn't talked about business but mundane things like his love for British Alternative Rock Bands, Arthur's preference of post-war painters and their shared admiration of Paris. Arthur doesn't mention his job but he seems to travel a lot because they share stories about things that happened to them on airports and planes like being snowed in, having to sit through 20 hour flights in economy because of a computer failure and their plane being redirected to the other side of the world because of terrorist warnings and weather conditions.

Robert notices how crinkles appear around Arthur's eyes when he laughs and that he has beautiful steady hands.

Over desert they discover a shared love of superhero movies and Robert looks away to hide his grin when Arthur does a JARVIS impression to ask the waiter for the bill.

They end up standing outside the restaurant talking because they don't seem to run out of things to say, all thoughts of hailing a cab forgotten.

Finally when there is a lull in the conversation they just look at each other, smiling and it's Robert who leans in to kiss Arthur almost chastely.

"Thanks, "he says quietly, "I didn't have this much fun in a long time." Arthur's hand is warm on his lower arm when he answers, "My pleasure" And kisses Robert decidedly more passionate than Robert kissed him.

Uncle Peter would probably have a heart attack seeing him standing on a sidewalk kissing another man, but Robert doesn't care. He's his own master now and can do as he pleases.

"I'll call you." Arthur promises and later on the way home he gets a text message that says

Muse concert on the 14th, want to go there? Arthur

And smiles when he texts back. Another heart attack for Uncle Peter.

/

Fact is it's been years since he has been to a concert.

Fact is that he still owns the clothes for it though. He may not be 20 anymore but he can still fit into his old jeans and t-shirts and still has spiked leather bracelets and even finds an old kohl pencil in the back of his wardrobe, it's a Muse concert after all not the fucking LA jazz festival.

Arthur wears ripped blue jeans and a white t-shirt that is so threadbare it's nearly see-through. Robert sees the way Arthur looks at him and thinks triumphantly that the smudge of kohl around his eyes wasn't too much and that tonight won't end as chastely as their first date. Funnily enough in his head Robert always counts the flight from Sydney to LA as their first date even though he slept through it completely.

"You look good, "Arthur says as a greeting but it doesn't sound like compliment. It sounds like Arthur is imagining him out of his clothes.

"You too, "Robert answers automatically but his eyes roam over the tanned skin of Arthur's legs that his jeans reveal here and there and how tightly the nearly invisible white cloth clings to his chest. The tension between them increases and Robert is the one to break it with a laugh.

"I haven't worn these since university."

"Yeah, it's been even longer for me." Arthur admits, which certainly shows with the t-shirt.

They get pulled along with the crowd and Arthur takes his hand not to lose him in the masses.

The music is loud, thrumming through him and he's falling into it as if it's a long lost friend, writhing with the masses. It's so crowded that he and Arthur are plastered against each other but Robert doesn't mind and Arthur doesn't look like he does either.

It starts to rain, warm summer rain and as if on cue 'Undisclosed Desires 'starts. The rain drenches them both and Robert thinks that Arthur might as well lose the shirt because the wet, white cloth hides nothing anymore. Arthur looks slick and sinuously muscled under his tanned skin and Robert wants to run his hands all over him, taste how the rain tastes when he licks it from Arthur's skin.

Arthur wraps his arms around Robert's neck to daw him even closer and Robert puts his hands on Arthur's hips. His heart beats fast and the music is forgotten while they're chest to chest and Robert can feel Arthur wants him just as much as Arthur wants him.

Arthur slides his hand into Robert's hair and kisses him, deep and passionate and unguarded. No one cares for them kissing while they writhe with the crowd to ''Uprising'.

/

It's a bit like being teenagers again, stumbling to his car a couple hours later without letting go of each other at all. It feels like being drunk or high or both.

They barely make it into Robert's flat, stripping as soon as the front door closes behind them, getting tangled in their wet clothes and each other. Robert discovers that Arthur has an utterly charming laugh, one he'd like to keep hearing, he thinks when they're writhing against each other on the hallway floor in the middle of their wet clothes.

It's over way too fast and Robert begins to question the whole frenzy they have been in. Maybe it was just something to satisfy his newfound recklessness, curiosity about what it may feel like to behave like this.

Then Arthur steps into the shower with him and it's like his curiosity has never been satisfied before.

Pillow talk with Arthur is very impersonal if it weren't for the constant touching and the smiles that let butterflies and hurricanes lose inside Robert's stomach. Arthur never talks about his job or any friends or family he might have. He doesn't mind because it never feels like they should talk about these things. Robert quite enjoys not being Robert Fisher, son of Maurice for once and maybe Arthur has the same reasons for keeping quiet about himself.

They have breakfast together the next morning and the goodbye kiss turns into sex on the couch before Arthur leaves.

A couple days later over dinner Arthur tells him that he usually travels a lot due his job but that at the moment he helps a friend who has been through a rough time and that will make him stay in the country for the near future.

Robert is more than fine with that.

/

There are times in Arthur's life when he seems to have lost all control over the direction it takes. High School had been such a time, leaving the military dream-sharing program for a fling with Eames has been another then there was that whole disaster with Mal's suicide and Dom's exile and now his relationship with Robert Fisher.

Arthur can tell the exact moment where his life went off the rails again (when he and Robert shared that cab from LA Airport) and where he is now (ignoring that little voice in his head that this won't end well one way or another because he can never be sure if he didn't brainwash Robert into the kind of man Arthur knows and therefore consent-issues are dubious) but for the time in between that he can't tell why he didn't simply said stop at one point or another.

Thing is Arthur is a selfish man: sleeping his way through High School because it was easier than studying and definitely more fun, running off with Eames because he wanted an adventure, going with Dom because proving a man's innocence against all odds was a new challenge Arthur had yearned for.

If he slept with Robert before the Inception then Arthur would have understood himself but doing it afterwards when Robert just destroyed Fisher & Morrow and there was nothing to gain, isn't something Arthur understands.

On the other hand he doesn't understand what Robert gains from it either except for having a good time. Maybe that's as good as a reason as any other.

They're discreet but they're not secretive so of course sooner or later it was bound to come out.

Arthur would have preferred later, much later when he's honest and maybe some more tasteful titles in the rainbows press but there you go.

The morning the photos are published Robert texts him that everything's okay but he needs to settle some things with his uncle and maybe they could have dinner at Arthur's?

Arthur tells him that's okay and returns to his breakfast, waiting for Dom to call and flip his shit.

Against all predictions it's Eames who calls first, but then Eames is in Singapore at the moment and probably got the photos a lot sooner than Dom did.

"Very unprofessional, darling, "he says instead of a good morning. "but I give you points for unpredictability."

"Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Eames, thank you." Arthur mimics in a British accent. On the other end of the line, Eames laughs.

"I just hope you know what you're doing."

"Not really, no." Arthur deadpans which gets him another chuckle from Eames.

"It's nice to see that your efficiency doesn't include relationships yet." Eames tells him and hangs up.

Dom calls him two hours later which tells Arthur that Dom brought Phillipa and James to the kindergarten first, so that he has time and space to yell at him.

"Are you out of your fucking mind? You can't just go and date our subject! I've never thought you would-" Arthur lets him rant, only listening with half a year while he reads the newspaper. He expected this and knows how to deal when Dom rants and raves.

"Are you done?" He asks calmly when Dom eventually runs out of breath.

"Am I done?" Dom asks disbelievingly. "What you did is-"

"_unprofessional, I know. I knew from the start and just in case Eames reminded me of that fact as well. I also know that is probably the worst mistake I've ever made right after sleeping with Eames and quitting my career for him, but I want to make this mistake."

"You love him?" Dom sounds even more disbelieving as if the concept of Arthur being in love is completely alien to him. It annoys Arthur quite a lot to be honest.

"Maybe...Probably to be honest. At least all evidence points that way." On the other end of the line Arthur hears Dom take a deep breath like he's making a difficult decision.

"Good luck then." Arthur is touched because it sounds like Dom is really meaning it.

"Thank you." He really means it, too. Dom is his best friend and the only family he has left and his approval means more to Arthur than he will ever admit.

/

Ariadne calls him via online-video in the early afternoon. It has to be late night in Paris at this point and Arthur briefly wonders why she's up that late, then remembers that she's a student and stops wondering.

"Hi Arthur, "She says but her face gives her away immediately.

"Hi Ariadne, "No need not to be polite, "I guess you heard then." It's a rhetorical question and they both know it.

"Arthur, have you ever thought...that maybe because of the inception..." She trails of.

"Yes, I've thought about that." How could he have not when there wasn't any record that Robert had been interested in men before? On the other hand Robert hadn't behaved like he was new to gay sex so it was more likely that due to the influence of his father he had never been in a relationship with another man.

"What if he's only with you because we changed him? If that's not really him?"

"We'll never know." He tries to say firmly but he does feel doubtful. "Inception is irreversible."

"And you're okay with that!" More than he probably should be but of course he doesn't mention that to her.

"I don't know, "he finally answers which is closer to the truth than he likes.

"Why did you go out wit him in the first place?" There are a lot of answers he could give: He asked me or I was lonely or Have you seen him, who wouldn't want to go out with him?

Truth is that he doesn't know and he tells her that.

"Maybe you should break up with him." She says cautiously.

"I've come a bit too far for that." He smiles.

"You can't go on like this, not knowing what we...what you did to him."

"Ariadne, I'm already going to hell. I might as well enjoy it as much as I can." He can see her protest forming and reminds her, "We all brainwashed him. It's a bit late for morals."

"Yeah, "She says eventually. "Probably."

"Have a good night."

"You, too."

/

That night over dinner Robert only casually mentions his uncles reaction which apparently wasn't very favourable at first but waits until they're in bed and Arthur is half-asleep before he mentions that Browning wants to see him for dinner next weekend.

"Sorry, I tried to talk him out of it." Robert doesn't look too concerned. Knowing Browning he will probably do a complete security check on Arthur which is fine because his cover is flawless except for that episode with Eames but he can explain that away with youthful foolishness and recklessness and it's even true.

"Will he feed me to the dogs if he thinks I'm not good enough for you?"

"We're Australians. We feed unwelcome people to the crocodiles." Robert smiles happily and Arthur's heart stops for a moment when he's once again reminded of how breath-takingly beautiful Robert is.

"That is not as reassuring as you might think it is." Arthur deadpans to hear Robert laugh.

"When am I going to meet your family?" Robert asks half-jokingly, half-sincere and Arthur has the word 'never' already on his tongue when he thinks about it: Dom and Eames and Ariadne, Phillipa and James and Miles, even Yusuf.

"I'll see when I can get them into the same country at the same time." He answers and Robert kisses him, sweet and true before switching off the light.

Arthur settles next to him and thinks, yes, this is the best mistake he has ever made.


End file.
